NEW ORLEANS -- It's been two years, almost to the day, since the New Orleans City Council passed what they described as sweeping reform to combat blight. But now some say there's a clear reason why the legislation hasn't produced the results many were hoping for.
Jane Schindler tries to enjoy a warm and cozy inside while avoiding a damp and dreary outside. The recent rain is part of it, but the view doesn't exactly help. Her home sits right next to a dilapidated one. She wonders what will come of it, and when.
"Are they going to sell it," Schindler wonders. "Are they going to tear it down?"
After repeated calls to the city, she said, someone finally came out to cut the grass. Yet, now that the home is boarded and weeds mowed, that homeowner is no longer doing anything wrong, according to city code enforcement inspectors.
"The word is now out on the street that all you have to do is cut the grass and board it up," said Stanley Cohn, board member with the non-profit group Beacon of Hope.
Cohn said despite the council's efforts two years ago to pass strict anti-blight laws, the mayor's office continues to be lax when it comes to enforcing what's on the books -- allowing damaged properties to remain.
"They breed crime," said Cohn. "They reduce property values for everyone in the neighborhood and it deters economic development."
District A Councilwoman-elect Susan Guidry hopes to change that.
"If you can't, by this time, deal with your property and have it look inhabited and have it inhabitable then something needs to give," said Guidry. "You need to sell it or fix up."
Once she officially takes her council seat in may, Guidry plans on assembling a committee of experts to investigate how to best implement new standards and practices. Those looking to bring and keep big business in the city say they couldn't agree more.
"If you don't have a clean and wholesome environment, if you don't have property values that go up instead of stay stagnant or go down, if you don't have places where people can live, raise their families then businesses, just as neighborhoods, will be unhealthy in this city," said Bob Brown, managing director of the New Orleans Business Council.
But even those who are forced to live next to the mess, say they're torn.
"In an ideal world, yeah, let’s clean up," said Schindler. "But people's situation, I don't know."
Schindler said she's caught trying to balance her needs at home with those who may still be fighting to get back to theirs.
The Nagin administration calls the blight ordinance a "critical step."
Troy Body, however, who serves as the director of development services for the city's Office of Community Development is quick to point out via a written statement that the blight ordinance "was put into effect to address the rebuilding, transient pattern of our citizenry trying to return home. ... As this city continues to progress and recover, it is expected that policy changes will be made to best suit the growing needs of all New Orleanians."
A spokesperson for Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu did not immediately reply with a comment for this story.
